Peak Performance: Refine Sports Training with Technology

In the demanding world of collegiate sports, precision of performance is critical. Many American University athletes wear tracking devices that collect various metrics to optimize their training plans.

AU's athletic programs use similar equipment from two different companies: Polar And catapult. The main components of both systems are accelerometers and GPS devices, according to the assistant athletic director for athletic performance Alex Lee.

“They take tons of metrics, but primarily they can tell you each time that you're accelerating at different rates, in which direction, and whether you're stopping,” Lee said.

Not all AU teams wear tracking devices – they are primarily field sports, with the exception of volleyball. Field hockey was the first team to start wearing them a few years ago and therefore used the Polar system AU Athletics. Since then, many teams followed Polar's example and some eventually switched to Catapult. Currently, the field hockey, men's basketball and men's soccer programs use Catapult, while women's basketball, women's soccer and women's lacrosse prefer Polar.

Catapult and Polar both have a “load” that the companies pursue slightly differently, according to Lee. “This parameter tells you how much work the player has done during a training session or game,” says the catapult website. “It has advantages over using distance as a performance metric because it accumulates during tackles, ruck work or other non-running activities.”

Polar tracks heart rate more closely and load is based on the time the athlete spends at different percentages of their heart rate. Rather, the load on the catapult is based on total accelerations of any magnitude and in any direction, divided by time.

“That load becomes kind of a measure of how strenuous a practice or a game was,” Lee said.

AU athletes wear the devices at all practices and games. Lee uses the data to work with the coaching staff to create specific training programs that meet the athletes' needs.

“Let's say it's pre-season and we know that a hard training session is usually such a big burden, or a game is such a big burden. We can prepare athletes gradually and safely,” said Lee. “It’s kind of about knowing more about the demands of the sport.”

Educating coaches on how to quantify the difficulty of their conditioning and exercises is extremely valuable. By tracking metrics like exercise density, coaches can offer athletes personalized off-season training programs that are very specific to their sport and position.

What's important is that the tools help with recovery and injury prevention.

“Typically, athletes get injured because they do too much too soon or do too much for too long,” Lee said. Tracking the load athletes are exposed to helps prevent fatigue.

Tracking systems are also helpful for recording athletes' progress. For example, during speed training, athletes can receive targeted feedback on how fast they run and how they are improving.

“The data we receive really helps the coaches to monitor our stress and align our mental work accordingly,” says the senior defender in men’s soccer Cooper Nunn said. “The team is making progress and trying to be as professional as possible.”

This article was edited by Penelope Jennings, Delaney Hoke, Abigail Pritchard and Abigail Turner. Editorial work was done by Luna Jinks and Ariana Kavoossi.

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